6 DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISHERIES No. 9 (1944) 



Advice from our field officers with reference to this fine species of game 

 animal would indicate that as a general rule very favourable conditions prevailed 

 during the period covered by this report. There were of course some exceptions, but 

 this is not unexpected in an area so extensive as that which is comprised within the 

 boundaries of the Province. There are many sections of Ontario in which settlement, 

 industrial development and the lack of suitable environment and cover have result- 

 ed in necessary migration and the consequent diminution of deer herds which 

 formerly inhabited such areas, but it can be safely stated that in those areas in 

 which suitable and desirable habitat is to be found deer continued to provide satis- 

 factory hunting for many thousands of our own hunters as well as for hundreds of 

 visiting sportsmen from the United States who participated in the joy and pleasure 

 which are derived from the recreation such sport provides. 



These animals are reported to be plentiful in many sections of the northern 

 portion of the Province, extending from Lake Nipissing in the east to the Lake of the 

 Woods in the west, and the same conditions are reported from that portion of 

 southern Ontario below the French and Mattawa Rivers, north of the southern 

 boundary of the District of Muskoka and between the Georgian Bay and the Ottawa 

 River. 



They are also reported to be numerous and increasing in many of the south- 

 western and southeastern counties in which the complete protection of an entire 

 closed season has been in effect for many years. 



MOOSE: — This species is practically non-existent in the larger proportion of South- 

 ern Ontario. There are reports that specimens have been observed, though their 

 numbers are very scarce, in Victoria, Hastings, Addington, Frontenac, Renfrew, 

 Haliburton, Muskoka and Parry Sound, and little, if any, improvement has been 

 observed. They are more prevalent in the northern portion of the Province, but it 

 cannot be stated that they are more than fairly plentiful in any particular section. 

 Improved conditions affecting this species are reported from some sections of the 

 Districts of Nipissing, Temiskaming, Algoma and Kenora. The sale of hunting 

 licenses for the taking of moose is quite limited as will have been observed in a 

 previous portion of this report, which fact might be construed as an indication that 

 such hunting is a branch of sporting activity which does not interest many sports- 

 men. 



In addition to the open season for moose which is established by legislative 

 authority, a special open season was declared by Regulation to be effective in that 

 portion of the Districts of Nipissing, Temiskaming and Sudbury defined in sub- 

 clause (i) of clause (b) of Section 7 of the Game and Fisheries Act to extend from 

 October 15th to 30, 1943. 



CARIBOU: — The protection which has been provided for this species in the way 

 of an entire close season which has been in effect for the past several years through- 

 out Ontario has unfortunately not resulted in any very noticeable improvement or 

 increase in the number of the herds of caribou which inhabit this Province. They 

 are extinct in southern Ontario and only from the Districts of Cochrane, Sudbury, 

 the northern part of Algoma and Thunder Bay has their existence been reported 

 and even in such instances it Is atated by the officers concerned that they are few 

 in number, with little, if any, improvement in their condition or numbers. 



EIjK: — Such of these animals as are to be found in Ontario at present are the 

 result of efforts undertaken by this Department in past years to establish this 

 species in the Province. The original stock was received from Western Canada 

 through the co-operation of the National Parks Branch of the Federal Department 

 of Lands, Mines and Resources. Some have been liberated in sections of Peter- 

 borough County, and in the Districts of Temiskaming (Township of French), Sud- 

 bury (Burwash Crown Game Preserve), Algoma (Chapleau Crown Game Preserve), 

 and Thunder Bay (Nipigon-Onaman Crown Game Preserve). 



